The Fish were Left to Flop around and Die in Agony...

[Alex]

I saw on the news today where a truck jacknifed and spilled it's contents of fish all over the highway...the newsreporter sadly commented that none of the fish survived...even though the video cameraperson who showed up was able to get shots of fish flopping around in death.

I find this somewhat outrageous...the complete calm that allowed all the fish to die...perhaps there is a reason. Perhaps gasoline spilled from the truck and there was danger of a fire starting and law enforcement officers were standing at the ready with a bib and fork ready for a free meal.

OK, OK, my point is the suffering of the fish should not have been taken as a casual event, and it was...

I found this story on the internet...I am not alone!

http://www.therationalradical.com/ds...nland-fish.htm


ANIMAL CRUELTY - FISH

Human Cruelty Towards Animals -- Even Fish -- Shouldn't Be Joked About

January 4, 2002

Continuing what seems to be developing into a Friday night habit, I'll turn from examining the myriad ways in which humans inflict unspeakable horrors on each other, to the related, equally grim subject of human violence against animals. (With a cheerful opening paragraph like that, I'm not sure even I would want to continue reading.? But for those intrepid souls with boundless compassion in their hearts...read on [img]smile.gif[/img]

I've wanted to comment on this one-paragraph Reuters item ever since I saw it:

FINLAND: A TRUE FISH STORY? A fishmonger was fined almost $200 by a Helsinki court for allowing his fish to suffer while on sale at a local market, the Kauppalehti newspaper reported. A veterinarian took Magnus Ekstrom to court, complaining that his burbots were moving their gills and wiggling around on the shop counter, suffering from unnecessary pain. Mr. Ekstrom whacked his fish to prove they were dead, but when the fish continued to flop around the veterinarian called the police, who arrived with wailing sirens, the newspaper said. "I think I am the only fisherman in Europe, no, in the entire world, that has been convicted with a thing like this," Mr. Ekstrom said.??? (Reuters)

I was struck by the somewhat tongue-in-cheek tone of the writing.? How silly, those Finns worrying about a fish flopping on a fishmonger's counter!

A bit of personal history: I went fishing only once.? This was in my teens, long before I became a vegan, indeed at a time when I thought vegetarians were idiots.? But once turned out to be quite enough.

On that fishing trip, I first knew I wasn't going to be a master angler when I couldn't bring myself to put the worm on the hook. (Okay, while it's true that had I been holding the worm I wouldn't have been able to impale it on the metal barb, to be honest, I didn't even want to pick up the yucky worm!)

Another guy on the boat put the worm on the hook after I made some excuse about not knowing the correct way to do so.? During the day of fishing, no fish bit at my bait.? But others I was with did catch some trout, I think it was.? And that's when I first saw up close a fish with a hook in its mouth, and realized how cruel that was.? I never doubted that the fish could feel the pain from being cut like that.

After my friends would catch a fish, they would put it in a pail of water.? I believe that was so the fish would stay alive, and fresh, until slaughtering time.? However, I noticed that other fishermen around us would leave their fish flopping around in their boats.? Again, no great animal rights activist at the time was I, but still, I couldn't help thinking that the fish were suffering terribly, a seemingly slow death by suffocation.

Which brings us to Mr. Ekstrom, the Finnish fishmonger.? That's exactly what was happening to his fish, they were flopping around, suffocating, and a veterinarian confronted Ekstrom.? After Ekstrom somewhat ludicrously claimed that the fish were actually dead, the vet called the police, took Ekstrom to court, and prevailed.? The Helsinki judge fined Ekstrom nearly $200.

Ekstrom's punishment is fully justified:

Scientific reports from around the world substantiate the fact that fish feel pain... Hooked fish struggle out of fear and physical pain. Once fish are brought out of their environment and into ours, they begin to suffocate. Often their gills collapse and the swim bladder can rupture due to the sudden change in pressure on their bodies.

Is it really true that while in the United States, elephant trainers can get away with drawing blood from their animals by jabbing them with metal hooks, in Finland fish are protected?

I don't know whether this case was a fluke, or whether Finland really does have laws prohibiting cruelty against animals which are both applicable to fish and generally enforced.

But there should be such statutes everywhere.? Inflicting pain on sentient creatures -- of any type -- is wrong, period.

This was a selection from The Daily Diatribe

More on Animal Rights

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ September 22, 2002 02:50 AM: Message edited by: Alex ]</font>

[soulfilms]

yes. surely i must have a superiority complex over other 'lesser' sentient beings because i really can't be empathetic to animals,etc. the way i see it, there are people starving and dying unnecessarily every single day and i wonder why people put so much time and effort into animal rights when such gross violations of human rights are largely ignored? there is an incredible amount of condescension involved in animal rights because the activists all think themselves on moral highgrounds and think they're so g0dd@mn right. has it ever occurred to these people (this may sound slightly ridiculous) that animals do not want human interferrence?

and yes, i do think it is ridiculous that the finnish fishmonger was fined for unnecessary cruelty because the fish is going to die anyway. there is no question of that. END OF STORY.

END SERMON.

[Alex]

Gosh, have you opened up a can of worms. Wow, do you have a lot to experience about this topic. All that really matters is how we treat anything weaker than ourselves, especially when not under duress.

Don't you watch Animal Planet, or the Genesis Awards?

[soulfilms]

what is animal planet? or the genesis awards? i try to steer clear of people with very feverent convictions. especially of the prozletysing type.

[Alex]

Animal Planet is a cable channel that I thought had expanded to global porportions. The Genesis Awards honors News Media all over the World for the portrayal of animals in a positive light, or for exposing the mistreatment of animals.

Many of the stories that recieve Genesis Awards are quite touching. Two elephant pals that were separated for 20 or 30 years and when they were re-united the sounds and acknowlegements they made were just amazing. It was as if one was watching two old friends at a reunion.

"Humanity is at least acknowledging that other living beings desire what you desire." (Oprah Winfrey - 2002 Emmy Awards)a

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ September 25, 2002 03:44 AM: Message edited by: Alex ]</font>

[SHATOUSHKA]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor=""><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">originally posted by alex:
All that really matters is how we treat anything weaker than ourselves, especially when not under duress.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor=""><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Many of the stories that recieve Genesis Awards are quite touching. Two elephant pals that were separated for 20 or 30 years and when they were re-united the sounds and acknowlegements they made were just amazing. It was as if one was watching two old friends at a reunion.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor=""><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">"Humanity is at least acknowledging that other living beings desire what you desire." (Oprah Winfrey - 2002 Emmy Awards)</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

good lord.... what a disgusting species i share
my genus with...

QUOTE #1:

#1 -- it is arrogant to make the statement that animals are 'weaker' than ourselves... as if to
already stake the claim over the rest of the planet.

#2 -- your statement is misleading. you mention
animals 'weaker' than ourselves.
if we were to conclude from that statement, animals
'less clever, less arrogant, and less cruel' than
we... then i'd agree.
however, given the element, sharks are much more
strong than humans, but we treat them like s h i t too

QUOTE #2:

#1 -- it is disgusting to have a show about an award
given to situations where animals were treated
cruelly... and then released of their prisons.

#2 -- it is even more cruel to personify animals.
the arrogancy continues...

QUOTE #3:

#1 -- again... what a ******* b itch!
to claim that animals desire what we desire is BS!
animals do not 'desire' (see QUOTE #2, item #2).
i could go on... but i feel i've already made
my DISCUSS THIS quota for the year...

[Alex]

Shatzy?

yeeesh.

[SHATOUSHKA]

lol... well i'm a big fighter against hypocrisy
and arrogancy...

that includes speciesism (the segregation and
eventual discrimination) of one species against
another

i guess since we are the only species that
actually performs that notion... it is in itself,
a contradition...

but lets not irritate the pot